Polar eyes
Package for pickup

The UPS delivery comes into the Mail Center in David Saul Smith Union every morning. Between that and the FedEx and USPS deliveries, there are hundreds of packages processed through the Mail Center each day.

At the beginning of the semester, the Mail Center moves to the Game Room to process the 1,100-1,200 packages they distribute each day. These days, it’s a small volume. “Last week was the first day we had less than 200.”

The Mail Center isn’t just used by Bowdoin students and faculty—members of the community come into buy postage and ship things as well. The day I visited, a man was mailing something to Germany.

Mirrors help members of the Mail Center staff see when there’s someone at the counter, even while they are cataloguing packages at the computers behind the mailboxes.

“What’s the strangest thing that’s ever been shipped through the Mail Center?”
“Well, one time we had some live chickens come for the science department.”

Last year, Interim Mail Services Supervisor Samuel Woodworth revamped the package distribution system for the first time in years. Now, packages are placed on shelves based on space, not just alphabetic order.

Woodworth has been working in the Mail Center for 10 years. “I’ve seen it all,” he said.
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